mkeller234

What a great way to bond with your new step sons. Your Trek frame may not be a repaint, I have a 1990 Trek 1420 and it looks almost identical to yours. The Trek is not the fanciest bike that I own but it is my absolute favorite bike to ride. Congratulations and enjoy married life!

bigbossman 

You guys are kidding, right? I'm in the SF Bay area as well - over in the East Bay. The riding is incredible - all kinds of places to go, lots of long safe routes to take, and very courteous motorists.

Same state - different worlds, I guess.

Mike Mills

I live in southern California, not the San Francisco area. It is almost an entire world away.

There are places to ride but you have to drive to them or ride through some pretty unfriendly places. Traffic down here is abysmal.

bigbossman 

I'm from there - I know. I was, like, born in Encino, totally, fer sure.

Chombi

Like I said, there is NO safe biking route near my residence in SF, where I do not have to drive my bike to. I've driven these SF streets for many years in cars and motorcycles and I know how dangerous they could be on a bicycle. It's bad enough when I take my motorcycle to work once in a while and every day I do seems to be an excercise of just trying not to get killed by "cages" and their roadraging and (still, despite the new laws,) cell phoning drivers.

Chombi
84 Peugeot PSV

noglider 

Today, I rode to the LBS in high heat and humidity. It's about 3 miles each way. I had two stems I'm trying to salvage, so I got one of the mechanics to sift through the junk bins. I think I got what I need.

I rode a 1973 Schwinn Varsity which I just totally cleaned and overhauled. The mechanics there were really impressed to see such a classic, and they shouted HEY! And of course, they lifted it to feel the 40 pound heft. I had never ridden so far on a Varsity. It takes a lot of pedaling effort, but the steering is really nice. It really really wants to track straight. You practically don't need handlebars to steer. I'm proud of that, because I had to bend the fork back into shape.

Oscuro

Took my new, beater, $25 all told Nishiki to work today. Getting used to it's twitchy handling, and the DT shifters (Coming from a LHT, this thing is a featherweight, and the crouched riding position is awkward).

Much faster than the Surly though.

Took it to a LBS to see if they could extend the stem a bit, but it is rusted solid. The one guy was curious about my pedals that have lube points! Tossed in a few drops of thick oil.

First voyage farther than "up and down the street".

RatedZeroHero

all over this little town...
3 hour ride with son...
alleys... parking lots a little highway... attacked every hill we could find...
more of that and some of this...
all in all pretty good day...
came home took a little break he was asking to go do it all over again!!!
.

solbrothers

took my centurion out and did a century. feels good, man

embankmentlb

20 miles on the bike formerly known as Prince.

curbtender

Made the circle around the Benicia and Carquinez bridges, Great day. About 25 miles...
Picture from about mid span on the Benicia looking back at the Martinez and Benicia shorelines.

a77impala

Visiting family in Austin TX, rode to Mellow Johnnys bike shop then found Lance Armstrong bikeway. Signs expressly forbid pedestrians from using the bikeway, a quarter mile down it I meet a couple walking their dog. Apparently some dog owners either can't read or don't think the rules apply to them. It is the same in my home town.
Sorry to rant but I am sick of having to put up with dogs everywhere I ride.

cudak888 

The '86 GP's did, and far as I know, the only GP in history to use 531 - I believe they became Techniums in 1987. On that note, the 1983, '84, and '85 Grand Prix models came labeled with the Raleigh 555SL cromoly tubing (some say it's Reynolds 501, I've suspected Tange 2).

-Kurt

bigbossman 

I took last Friday/Monday off, and headed to the hills for a little mini-vacation. We rent a small log cabin up at a place called Packer Lake, northwest of Lake Tahoe. Packer Lake sits at 6218', just under Packer Saddle and almost in the shadow of the Sierra Buttes. It is a nice, quiet little lake, and the chief activity is laying around and feeling good. The fishing is great if you're so inclined, and the little lake is fairly well stuffed with Rainbow and Brook trout. Yum.

Mostly, we fish, relax, and walk about in the woods for three days. the area is in the heart of California's "Gold Country" and right off of historic Ca Hwy 49. A local town, Downieville, was once a gold mining mecca, but now the cash crop is mountain biking. they have some premier stuff up there, complete with shuttles to take you and your bike up and down the mountains.

Anyway - I brought the Palo Alto with me on this trip as the road biking possibilities are quite nice, as well. From Packer Lake, it is a 3.5 mile descent to the main road, and another 1.5 mile descent to the one building town of Bassett. From there, you can choose to climb up 6.5 miles to Yuba Pass, or turn right and descend ~17 miles to Downieville. I chose to to both, but on different days.

On Saturday, I decided to climb up to Yuba Pass, descend down to Sierraville, and then scoot along on hwy 49 north east toward the Nevada border. I figured I'd just keep going and bag as many miles as possible before the girls reeled me in. I layed out the route on a map, showed it to the wife, and told her to wait three hours and then come after me.

The climb up to the top of Yuba Pass was fairly uneventful, as the weather was perfect and it was in dappled shade. Still - after 6.5 miles of climbing, I was ready for it to end when I finally summited. After a quick break, I zoomed down for ~7 miles on other side onto the floor of Sierra Valley, an ancient 120,000 acre lake bed sitting at 5,000'. From then on, it was pretty much flat roads in the high desert, with an occasional roller tossed in just to keep it interesting. At about 40.6 miles, the girls hauled me in just past the little town of Loyalton.

There was little to no wind, the temperatures were in the high 70's/low 80's, there was little to no traffic, the roads were nice, and the sky was blue. It was a nice ride, but I must admit that riding mile after mile on the relatively featureless high desert got to me after a while.

On Monday, I rode down from the lake and turned right to descend down to Downieville. This is my annual milk-run - Monday is our "go home" day, so after I finish helping to pack up, I scoot off downhill for ~25 miles or so while the girls get a last frolic with the dog at the lake. About an hour later I'm in Downieville eating an ice cream, while I wait for my girls to come fetch me. All in all, close to 70 miles and about 3,000' of climbing for the two rides.


And now for the pics:

Yuba River Drainage:


Sierraville:


Cruising through town:


On the way to Loyalton:


A nice spread in Sierra Valley:


Another ranch:


Still on the way to Loyalton:


Bored with the never changing landscape, I focus on closer things. hustling along on flat ground:


The road behind me:


At last - Loyalton:

Oscuro

I've never had a problem with dogs myself...having grown up with dogs helps.

Drivers speed, bicyclists pass on the left, and weave through traffic, and pedestrians walk their dogs on bike paths. It happens.

gtownviking

Georgetown to Andice and back. 25 miles RT

curbtender

So a guy drove by me with a "Keep Austin Wierd" Bumper sticker. ?

craigcraigcraig

hooray for georgetown! i live in cedar park, gotta love country rides.

nlerner

Yesterday, I rode the 100K route of the annual Deerfield Dirt Road Randonnee: 7,7880 total feet of climbing, temps around 90 or so with high humidity, many gnarly descents on steep, rocky trails, the ultimate mixed-surface (which meant mostly dirt) ride. The first 12 miles were really hard and hot, but my body seemed to adjust after that point, and I ground out the hills the rest of the way. I was on my Kogswell P/R, which was a good choice with its 38mm 650B tires and low gearing. Unfortunately, I had two flats in the last 5 miles and a couple of under-lubricated RD jockey wheels, which made chirping sounds in low gear, but otherwise fine. I also saw lots of great steel bikes, including several Rivendells, a J.P. Wiegle, a Schwinn Paramount, a Nervex-lugged Falcon, and a funky thing with wooden tubing. The range of bikes was remarkable from full-suspension MTBs to old steel to modern materials. It was quite a day.

Neal

drummer5

I've been super busy all summer finishing up my thesis in architecture for school the only biking I've been able to do is commuting besides the occasional ride around the city. Well yesterday I came out to my family's camp on Lake Ontario until Wednesday. Last night I went on a quick 6 mile warmup ride, and today I did around 13 miles, heading down to Selkirk Shores and then back to my camp.



Started at the left point, went to the right, and then back. I should have snapped a few shots in the park with my cell but I totally forgot.

I did get a few pictures of the bike out here in the yard though, don't mind the mis-matching tires, Kalloy post, and plastic clips, those will all be rectified soon(like I said, my summer was consumed with my thesis).



In the side yard overlooking Lake Ontario.



And the required white garage door picture.

Tomorrow I'm thinking perhaps a good 26 miler to Oswego and back.

JunkYardBike

Aw, c'mon Neal. What, did you bail on the 170K?

I've looked at the website for that ride the past 2 years, but haven't mustered the courage. A story last year about a spill on one of the treacherous gravel descents didn't help. I managed about 40 miles locally this weekend, and the humidity was pure misery. They should schedule that ride during cooler weather. Kudos to you, however, for completing the metric century!

nlerner

Ah, when it comes down to it, I'm weak! And old--it seemed most of the riders were 20 years younger than I am. Or maybe it just seemed that way as they passed me up the hills mashing 42/24 gearing. In the parking lot at the finish, I heard one rider discussing how he rode the 170K on a single speed. Hmm.

There was one nasty spill I rode past on one of those descents and heard that the rider broke his collarbone. Another rider at the last rest stop said he passed someone who had fallen and "opened up his whole side." I didn't want to think about that much, particularly since I still had the final one-mile "gnarly descent" to deal with. But I'm a very cautious descender and never felt like I was going to spill. My canti brakes on the Kogswell performed very well (if a bit loudly).

Neal

drummer5

Went for a nice 17 mile run about on the Raleigh today, more flat country roads than the rolling hills of yesterday but with a mean headwind for about the first 7 or 8 miles of it.

Tigerprawn

Over the weekend a friend and I had a chance to ride near Lake San Antonio. We rode the same route that Wildflower Triathlon athletes take. Great ride a really fun descent back to the lake.

rhm

I rode 72 miles yesterday, over some very nice country roads on eastern Long Island, and the highlight being Dune Road between Westhampton and Bridgehampton; but due to bad planning I was also on some very busy and boring roads. I brought my camera, but didn't use it once, so you'll have to settle for a picture of The Big Duck. Yes, it's real, I rode right by it (and did not stop).


But I rode them on my recumbent. Can I post about my recumbent here? It's almost 20 years old, has a steel frame with a freewheel (not cassette) hub, Suntour gears... and the company that made it (Counterpoint) is defunct... all that makes it C&V, right?

It's really only the third time I've ridden that bike, so I'm still getting the hang of it. It does seem fast, though, probably due to the better aerodynamics than on an upright bike. Strange looking, though!